Centre de Formation des Apprentis Hôteliers

Stainless used in the industrial kitchens of these hospitality training centre buildings for apprentices brings two contrasting surface finishes:

• Uginox Bright for the pyramid shaped cassette panels in the long corridor of the general teaching area
• Brushed stainless for the flat panels along the main landing of the professional teaching area

Bringing added value to professional training was the leitmotiv for the public authorities when they commissioned the construction of this apprentice training centre (CFA) alongside the regional catering school Raymond Mondon, due for renovation. The goal was to develop synergies and create a Centre of excellence offering all of the disciplines in hospitality management within one urban hub. Both facilities are headed by one management team, actively involved in the “City of taste” initiative developed by the Lorraine region. Built as a whole, the CFA is a taster and a valuable shop window. Open to all hospitality careers, it is often open to the general public with a licensed restaurant. The art of welcoming and courtesy are honed to the same extent as the culinary talents are taught. The simple pleasures of the home-grower result in the most refined cuisine obtained through hard work demanding both rigour and precision. This demanding and sensitive environment with its catering professions has turned the concept and whole make up of this new establishment into a real life achievement centre.

A well structured layout

The building of the CFA was an opportunity to rework the site from the street side and rationalise the access in advance of the centre of excellence with the renovation of the high school. On entering the high school concourse, the area is laid out into two main functional areas, the main street facing professional teaching building and the general teaching building shaped like a fine blade at the back of the plot. The concourse descends progressively under the pillars of the general teaching building forming a cover.

A large pontoon is an invitation to enter the building leading to a number of different activities overlooking the concourse and the boards of the allotment and home-grown garden areas. Separate from the professional building is a restaurant, cloakrooms and the kitchens with the administrative areas and classrooms at the far end. The stratified floors and the resulting transparency enrich the place and give it countrified quality feel.

Bright annealed at the tips and brushed at the planes

The elementary volume of the buildings respond with the worked façade areas in both a distinctive and contrasting manner. Stainless steel, a material of excellence for professional kitchens. Developed along 100 metres in the background, the general teaching block is illuminated by its 400 Uginox Bright cassette panels shaped into diamond tips like 320 drawings ofan 800m² jigsaw etched onto the façade. In the foreground, the large metallic box of the professional teaching block takes on the brushed stainless look of the professional kitchen equipment, aligned to the interior surfaces used on both the walls and ceilings. Returning to the exterior, this impeccable material clads the flat panels of the entire technical floor positioned above the kitchens. Set into the background lies the frontal of the restaurant in the west façade, shielded by Uginox Bright vertical louvers which encircle the street facing loggia. A well polished long term establishment.